Iran - Iran on Monday informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in an official letter that it will begin enriching higher-grade nuclear fuel from Tuesday.

"Today we handed over the letter," Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, told Press TV. He added that Tehran will use its nuclear stockpile to enrich uranium to up to 20 percent to supply the Tehran research reactor which produces medical isotopes.

The fuel will be be produced at the Natanz enrichment plant.

Iran says as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it is entitled to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.

On Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the country's nuclear organization to take measures to produce the fuel for the Tehran reactor domestically. He, however, stressed that a nuclear swap deal with the West is still possible.

Originally published in Press TV